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Not-So Petite Sirah & Other
Stuff
While not a "Rhone Valley" grape, a handful of California wineries
still make a wine called "Petite Sirah" (some spell it "Petite
Syrah"). This variety, it turns out, is not at all related to Syrah and has
been thought to be a very minor French grape called Durif.
We understand that a
small percentage of what is called Petite Sirah is probably a really odd variety called
Peloursin. Monsieur Durif, it seems, had actually crossed Syrah with Peloursin to
come up with the "Durif" variety!
Petite Sirah enjoyed some of it's 15 minutes of fame in the mid-1970s. Ridge made excellent,
deep-colored peppery red wines of it, though the label most recognized for Petite Sirah
was/is Stags' Leap Winery. A number of wineries made Petite Sirah years ago and it
was often used to beef up light Pinot Noirs and wimpy Zinfandels. Imagine that
Concannon and Mirassou were the quality leaders back in the early 1970s! (Translated:
Mirassou, until recently and Concannon are not wineries viewed by those
"in-the-know" as places to look for interesting wines.) Freemark
Abbey's 1971 Petite Sirah, along with the 1971 Ridge, is legendary!
David Bruce has been making Petite Sirah since those days of yore, but only in
the last few years have they gotten it right.
Quite a bit was planted in California's Central Valley, growers thinking it
would flourish in that area's hot climate. Plantings have been scaled back
significantly and the few Petite Sirah wines made today of any note come from coastal
regions.
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- STAGS' LEAP WINERY
 Now owned by the Beringer Wine
Estates group, this is an old vineyard in the Stags Leap District of the Napa
Valley. The winery was founded by Carl Doumani and made its first wine, a Chenin
Blanc, back in 1972.
The red wine of note was (and still is) Petite Syrah.
Doumani spent years embroiled in a legal battle with neighbor Warren Winiarski at Stag's
Leap Wine Cellars. This entanglement settled very little, but it made money for
some lawyers. The two adversaries became allies when their neighbors started to use
the name "Stags Leap District" on wines from this little corner of the Napa
Valley. They were unsuccessful in protecting their exclusive use of the name and
today you can find a number of wineries located in the Stags Leap District.
Doumani
finally sold his property to the Beringer group. He retained a
portion of the original vineyard, though, and makes a really nice wine under
the "Panza" label. Sancho Panza...sidekick to Don
Quixote. Carl, too, is tilting at windmills, still.
Petite Syrah continues as the mainstay at Stags' Leap and the wine is deep in
color with a peppery, spicy element. It is not a
particularly smooth red, so pair it with robust, well-seasoned foods.
The 2007 is a blackberryish wine, but has nuances of other varieties as this
vintage seems to have less Petite Syrah and more of its "friends"
in the mix. There's about 15% Syrah, but also a drop of Carignane, Mourvèdre,
Grenache and Viognier.
- Currently available:
2007 Napa Valley (List $39) Sale $33.99
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ROBERT BIALE
 Napa's
famous former chicken farmer, Robert Biale, is now a Gentleman
Vigneron.
A customer came into the shop one day and saw a Biale bottle on the rack and
shrieked "Bob Biale?!?!? But he's a chicken farmer!"
She explained he used to sell fresh eggs along the road, so she was shocked
to see his name on an expensive bottle of wine.-
- The winery is best known for Zinfandel, but they've made some nice Petite
Sirah, too. They source fruit from four vineyard sites, from Calistoga
to the north down to Oak Knoll in the south.
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- Blueberry fruit, moderately tannic and definitely teeth-staining...
Currently In Stock: 2008 ROBERT BIALE Napa Valley PETITE SIRAH
"Royal Punishers" Sold Out
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QUIXOTE
 We've
known crazy man Carl Doumani since buying Stags Leap Winery Chenin Blanc
back in the early 1970s. He had started his little winery
along the Silverado Trail and soon after became embroiled in a legal battle
with his neighbor Warren Winiarski who opened Stag's Leap Wine Cellars.
After settling the issue of the name of their competing brands, the two
ended up becoming compadres (to a small degree) when they fought the
neighbors in trying to keep them from using the designation of Stags Leap on
their labels.
Doumani has long been a character. At a time when the Napa Valley was
a rather quiet and conservative back water to the raucous Bay Area, Carl was
a founding member of a little all-boy's club of wine industry fellows:
GONADS it was called. This stood for something like the Gastronomic
Order of the Nonsensical and Dissipatory. This was an exclusive bunch,
too. You couldn't simply join...you had to know the secret handshake
and be invited.
Carl was a long-time champion of Petite Syrah and Stags Leap was best known
for it, while Winiarski's Stag's Leap Wine Cellars made a name for itself
with Cabernet Sauvignon, though Warren dabbled in making Petite Sirah.
I always wondered if that wasn't simply to torment his neighbor.
Years later, though, the Stags Leap Winery had grown and Doumani longed for
simpler times. So, he sold off his Stags Leap Winery business, but
retained a modest amount of vineyard property. And with that he
launched a couple of new wine labels, Quixote and Panza.
Carl lobbied long and hard to anybody who would listen that he could make a
Petite Syrah that was every bit as good as the fancy Cabernets being sold at
silly prices. But Petite Syrah has one flaw in that marketing
ointment: it doesn't say "Cabernet Sauvignon" on the label.
Yet, if you taste the current Quixote Petite Syrah, you'll find many of the
same elements of today's high-scoring Napa Cabernets. It's inky dark
in color and youthful in terms of its hue. The wine sports lots of
dark fruit notes and it's massive on the palate. This is a big
mouthful of wine, whether it's Cabernet or not.
Doumani farms 27 acres of grapes. Organic farming, too, as he followed
in the footsteps of his neighbor Robert Sinskey and he appreciated the
preachings and teachings of Alice Waters at the Chez Panisse restaurant not
too far away in Berkeley.
When the Weimax crew tasted the wine, of course they were a bit blinded by
the old-fashioned notion that Petite Syrah takes a back seat to
"noble" varieties such as Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon.
They all thought the wine was too costly. But I pointed out that this
is every bit as stylish as the triple-digit priced Cabernets we have in the
shop (okay, maybe Heitz Martha's Vineyard and Ridge Monte Bello offer more
complexity and finesse, but most of the big, gonzo Cabernets of today are
right in the same league as Doumani's Quixote Petite Syrah).
And being the contrarian and iconoclast he's always been (since we've known
this rascal), Doumani seals his expensive little red wine not with a cork,
but with a screw cap.
Now that takes gonads!
Currently in stock: 2008 QUIXOTE Napa PETITE SYRAH Sale
$79.99-
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VAROZZA
 The
Varozza family has been in St. Helena forever, as long as going back to the
late 1800s counts as forever.
They have about 40 acres of vines and sell most of the fruit to neighboring
wineries. Varozza produces a tiny bit of Cabernet Sauvignon and a
small amount of Petite Sirah.
We have a nicely mature version of their Petite Sirah and it's a
medium-bodied, old-fashioned Napa Valley red wine. -
- Currently in stock: 2001 VAROZZA Napa Valley PETITE SIRAH $34.99
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WOOD FAMILY You
often hear the term "garagiste" bandied about for small wineries,
especially those in Bordeaux.
But the Livermore Valley is home to a true garagiste and it's the
Wood Family winery.
Now Livermore is not on most wine geek's radar these days. The
wineries there are, in large part, underachievers. Yet, once upon a
time, Livermore was producing more prestigious wines than Napa!
In the 1960s and 1970s the region was famed for Petite Sirah. And
winemaker Rhonda Wood produces, in our view, the best example of Livermore
Petite Sirah. It comes from, in 2007, the Ghilmetti Vineyard in
Livermore. Rhonda produced about 4 barrels' worth of this deep, inky
wine.
It shows some warm climate notes--ripe blackberry fruit and an underlying
spice tone. It's big and almost chewy, but the tannins are not hugely
aggressive, but there's a mildly coarse texture to the wine. Pair it
with some well-seasoned red meats...
By the way, we also have Syrah from the Wood Family...the vineyard is owned
by football guru John Madden.-
- Currently in stock: 2007 WOOD FAMILY Livermore PETITE SIRAH
$26.99
RIDGE VINEYARDS
 Ridge has
close to 35 acres of Petite Sirah planted north of Healdsburg in Sonoma
County near their Lytton Springs winery.
One parcel is has vines in it which are more than 100 years
old. About two-thirds of their Petite Sirah was planted between 1987
and 2001. We've seen this variety under the Ridge label on a sporadic
basis.
The 2009 is a medium-full bodied red wine with some dark
fruit notes. It's not especially peppery, but there's a nice red and
black fruit aspect to the wine. We find it to be drinkable now and
there's a nice bit of oak showing in this wine. Very nice!
- Currently in stock: 2009 RIDGE "Lytton Estate" PETITE SIRAH
SALE $27.99
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ERNA SCHEIN
 Mr.
and Mrs. Les Behrens bought out Mr. and Mrs. Hitchcock in the Behrens &
Hitchcock winery. Les has named the place after his Mom who was, we're
told, a prolific baker. Hence the old kitchen mixer-master on
the label, a strange icon for a winery (but it beats the hell out of another
critter label). I asked if Erna had a son named Rainier or
Schubert, but apparently she did not.
We have a Spring Mountain Petite Sirah that's anything but petite. The
wine will stain your teeth and probably the wine glass. Don't wear
light-colored clothing when you're drinking this. The fragrances are
reminiscent of violets and sweet berries. It gives some of the "crèmes
de cassis" a run for the money in terms of intensity. The flavors
are in the same super-concentrated direction. Fasten your seatbelt
when you open a bottle of this little red!-
- Currently in stock: 2005 ERNA SCHEIN Napa Petite Sirah $47.99
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JOSEPH SWAN VINEYARDS
 Joe Swan
was a California wine industry pioneer, growing grapes in Sonoma and making
some of the most complex Pinot Noirs and Zinfandels in the late 1960s and
early 1970s.
He was not a UC Davis-trained enologist, but learned winemaking from
quizzing prominent winemakers in Europe and California about their
craft.
His were some of the earlier "cult" wines in California and unlike
a number of today's much sought-after wines, his were truly compelling
bottles.
We met Swan through some Italian friends, a prominent Piemontese family
whose daughter was in California for a winery internship. I recall
being privileged to attend a lunch prepared by Joe Swan--a fantastically
good cassoulet outshining any I've had since in France! And Swan's
Zinfandels were delicious with this feast.
Joe Swan passed away in 1988. The winemaker these days is Rod
Berglund, Swan's son-in-law. Our path crossed Rod's for the first time
around 1980 when he was the winemaker and a partner in a venture called La
Crema Vinera.
Rod and his wife, Lynn Swan (a good name for a football player, ain't it?)
produce approximately 5 or 6 barrels annually of a delightful red they call
Cotes du Rosa. It's an old vines red from an old vineyard near the
winery. Carignane is the main grape, but these days they don't reveal
much about the wine's origins.
Whatever it is, it's good. Medium ruby in color, there's an intriguing
spice element in the Cotes du Rosa red. It's in its element paired
with Mediterranean cuisine--grilled sausages, lamb with a touch of rosemary
or grilled salmon will show handsomely with this. Though we typically
enjoy it in its youth, a few years of cellaring is not out of the question.
Currently in stock: 2008 JOSEPH SWAN Cotes du Rosa $19.99
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FRICK
 Bill Frick is
an old hippie who started his wine adventure in Santa Cruz before
establishing a real winery in Sonoma County.
He's a fan of all sorts of unusual grapes and has never been the sort of
fellow to follow the leaders. Cinsault, Counoise, Syrah, Viognier,
Syrah and Carignane find a home in Frick's cellar.
We've currently got a dynamite Carignane from the 2006 vintage. The
vineyard is a dry-farmed, head-pruned patch in Mendocino County. The
vines are more than a hundred years old and produce a remarkably soulful red
wine.
Currently in stock: 2006 FRICK Mendocino Carignane $19.99
Some French-styled sausages and grilled vegetables were well-matched with Bill
Frick's Carignane.
- FOPPIANO VINEYARDS
 The Foppiano family has been in the wine biz in Sonoma's Healdsburg area
since 1896. They had, for many years, made significant quantities of insignificant wines.
I can recall their "Burgundy" being a wine of those "in the know" back
in the 1970s. We used to have a few of their "jug" wines back in those days:
half-gallon bottles filled with wines called "Chianti," "Burgundy,"
etc.
Today Foppiano makes about 20,000-30,000 cases of wine.
They seem to be focusing on Petite Sirah, perhaps because it is the one grape varietal
with which they do well, though we've found a good Zin here from time to
time.
Foppiano makes a pleasant, berryish, mildly spicy red wine from its Petite
Sirah. We like the brown spice character of the wine, which
reminds us of cloves and nutmeg with a nuance of cinnamon. Try a
bottle for yourself and see if you detect this quality in the Foppiano
Petite Sirah.
- Currently in stock: Foppiano Russian River 2009 Petite Sirah $16.99
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DAVID BRUCE WINERY
David Bruce was a wine geek who was a
dermatologist, hell-bent of entering the pimply business of making wine.
He started in the 1960s and some of his first wines were dramatic efforts as
he definitely pushed the envelope making a rash of curious (and sometimes
really good) wines.
They have been making Petite Sirah from California's Central Coast for many
years. It shouldn't be a surprise that a producer of Pinot Noir makes
Syrah or Petite Sirah...fortifying the Pinot with either of those varieties can
help boost the color and/or add some body to the wine. This is not an
uncommon practice although few winemakers will admit to this.
Anyway, Dr. Bruce's Petite Sirah is a medium-bodied wine and it's made to be
drinkable in its youth...not a wine for cellaring. It's a wine for a
casual meal, like a backyard barbecue or pair it with some gourmet
hamburgers...it's best at cool cellar temp, too.
- Currently in stock: DAVID BRUCE 2006 Central Coast
Petite Sirah $18.99
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- GUENOC WINERY
 The
Guenoc winery has been around for several decades, though the property dates
back to 1888 as a Lake County vineyard site.
It was founded by British stage actress Lily Langtry and they use the
Langtry name for some high-priced bottlings. The Guenoc name comes
from the Guenoc Rancho, a large land grant east of Lake County's city of
Middletown.
The vineyard comprises more than 300 acres and Guenoc purchases
additional fruit, largely from nearby Lake County growers. This is a
region which has long supplied Napa Valley wineries with fruit to augment
their more costly bottlings.
The quality of the wines at Guenoc is certainly in the "good"
column. We find the current line-up to be reliable and of sound
quality...you might not experience a major thrill with the wines, but they're
certainly quite drinkable.
Guenoc is one of the largest producers of Petite Sirah in California.
They make approximately 14,000 cases annually of this lovely little Lake County
bottling. It's a medium-bodied red and shows a bit of red fruit and light
oak on the nose. The flavors offer similar characteristics and the Petite
Sirah is only mildly tannic. And it's well-priced for its quality.
- Currently in stock: 2009 GUENOC Lake County PETITE SIRAH $13.99
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WHITE KNIGHT
 Don
Sebastiani and his sons offer this California Viognier made from grapes
grown in the warm Sacramento Delta region of Clarksburg.
The region allows for relatively cost-effective (that means
higher-than-cool-coastal-area yields) tonnage, while still retaining some
varietal character.
It's a wine that has the fruity and floral aromatics reminiscent of good
Viogniers...you'll sense white flowers, apricot and peach, etc., with an
underlying note contributed by some wood. I suspect they use
some shortcuts with respect to the wood (staves or teabags of oak chips can
be immersed in a tank of wine to add wood without oxidizing the wine, for
example). Most people probably wouldn't notice the wood tones here,
but they are there. White Knight Viognier is soft, a bit plush and
supple on the palate...
It's reasonably priced at ten bucks a bottle.-
- Currently in stock: 2010 WHITE KNIGHT Clarksburg VIOGNIER
$9.99
Some
French Syrahs, etc.
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